Perth Voice Interactive

THE state government has ordered two concrete batching plants in Claisebrook to close by 2024, following years of complaints from locals over noise, dust and traffic.

One plant has been there since 1987 and is owned by Holcim, and the other since the 1960s and is owned by Hanson.

Many residents say the dust, noise, traffic, and amount of space the plants take up mean the area, close to a train station and bike network, is under-utilised.

“This is a big win!” said business group Claisebrook Collective and locals in a statement this week.

“It shows [the state government] has caught our vision for this precinct, recognising the unrealised potential of these prime inner city sites to deliver housing diversity, jobs and more.

“While the batching plants have been allowed to stay for another six or so years while they plan for relocation, there is now no doubts about the long-term direction of this precinct as a vibrant, lived in, higher-density, inner-city community where many more people will be able to live, work, eat, shop, exercise, study, gather and play.”

But Greens north metro MLC Alison Xamon says the state government has been “overly generous” in allowing the plants to stay until 2024.

“The Claisebrook precinct has been held back too long by the presence of these batching plants,” she says.

“They were only ever intended to be on those sites temporarily. They should have moved in 2012 or in 2017, when their previous special licences expired.”

The plants’ licences were due to expire in 2011, but former planning minister John Day granted them a five-year extension.

Developers

That expired last year, and Vincent council gave them one more year while they tried to push through a new planning scheme that would effectively zone the plants out of town

That scheme needed state government approval.

On Thursday acting planning minister Ben Wyatt approved a slightly modified scheme, with a 2024 deadline, and upzoning of the land to residential density R160, making it far more attractive to developers to build apartments.

“This decision concludes a long period of uncertainty for all stakeholders and provides an outcome that meets the needs of both the community and industry,” Mr Wyatt said.

“There will continue to be adequate concrete supply for future construction projects in the Perth central area.”

Vincent mayor Emma Cole welcomed the decision.

“Although we wanted a much shorter timeframe than 6.5 years on the operation of the concrete batching plants, we recognise a clear end is in sight,” she says.

“Claisebrook landowners are ready to develop, new cafes and businesses are regularly emerging, and the community is united in their desire to see an end to the dust and disruption of the plants.”

Vision

Perth Labor MP John Carey welcomed: the decision. “I would have liked to see them gone sooner, [but] what it does show is there’s a clear vision in the new plannig scheme that says this is to be a high density residential and mixed use area.”

However, both Claisebrook-based concrete plants say forcing them out of the suburb will push up construction costs in the city,.

“The importance of the East Perth plant to the continuing growth of our city, and indeed, the growth of the state, cannot be underestimated,” read a statement from Hanson.

The modified planning scheme goes back to Vincent council for a final look before it’s set in stone.

by DAVID BELL

CHRISTMAS may bring good tidings, but it’s not bringing peace and quiet for those living on Railway Parade in Maylands.

This week residents were delivered NBNCo flyers telling them that “construction work near your property” was about to commence to upgrade pipes along the roads—some seven weeks after verge-work had already started.

Bayswater councillor Catherine Ehrhardt’s brother has a property there and she says there’s been no end of troubles since the NBN contractors showed up and started digging up the verge one Saturday at 5.45am.

The Ehrhardt siblings got in touch with NBNCo provider Downer Group asking what was going on.

The company claimed they’d done a flyer drop back in October letting people know about the works, but no one they’ve spoken to on the street remembers getting one.

The group also apologised for their workers showing up so early, saying they didn’t realise people lived there and they thought it was shops.

The miscommunication at Railway Parade is the latest in a string of NBN balls-ups: first we heard from residents with heritage-listed houses unhappy with getting big green tombstones (aka the “nodes” that will deliver us internet) plonked outside their house with no consultation, then there were reports, from people who finally have the watered-down version of the NBN, that it’s sluggish and worse than their old ADSL.

The original NBN plan was to deliver the new high-tech fibre directly to the home, and anyone who got it early got fast speeds.

When the Abbott government was elected in 2013 and when Malcolm Turnbull was communications minister, they pulled back the rollout to no longer deliver the fibre directly to the home, just to those green nodes you’re seeing pop up on verges, with the old copper network making up the distance to the houses. In November Telstra announced they would compensate 42,000 customers for slow NBN speeds.

by DAVID BELL

A 120-year-old brewing legacy in Leederville is set to be revived.

In 1896 JJ Wallis established the Golden West Company, operating out of a large factory on Carr Place and selling “aerated waters, The High Class Rain Water Drink”.

The factory was demolished in the 1970s and the recently completed apartments on that site has an arty bubble-like design that pays homage to the decades of effervescent drinks produced there.

Now the name itself will be revived with a new microbrewery planned for the rear-neighbouring block, which fronts onto Newcastle Street.

Modular Brewing has put in an application to have the block rezoned light industrial.

It’s early days but they’ve passed the first hurdle this week with Vincent council approving the rezoning.

Unlike a brewpub where the beer’s served on site, it’ll be a small brewing operation, with three staff making 400 to 1000 litres a week.

In the application to Vincent council they owners of Modular Brewing say they “fell in love with [the] historic concept of this story and thus propose to reignite the ‘Golden West’ story in Leederville by trading under the name of ‘Golden West Brewing’.”

During the public consultation period, 31 nearby neighbours sent in submissions, with 28 in favour, one against, and two with concerns.

Most concerns were about odours, since brewing operations get a bit smelly when boiling up the wort (if you’ve been in Fremantle on brewing day you can smell the Little Creatures tanks from as far away as the Esplanade).  One of the council’s approval conditions is to adhere to the odour management plans they’ve had drawn up.

by DAVID BELL

THE local government standards panel has cleared Bayswater councillor Brent Fleeton of wrongdoing by letterboxing flyers criticising council in the lead up to the October elections.

In August Cr Fleeton hand-delivered 1000 flyers in Morley and Noranda with opinion pieces criticising council, including one on the latest budget, which he argued pushed rates up too high.

He wasn’t up for re-election this year, but the flyer stated “I desperately want fresh faces on council who know how tough it is at the moment and vote accordingly”.

The anonymous complaint alleged he secured personal advantage, or disadvantaged others, and also alleged “misuse of local government resources” by using the council logo on the flyer.

The standards panel deals with minor misconduct and can order a councillor to be publicly censured, to publicly apologise (taking out ads in papers saying they’re sorry), or to undertake relevant training.

The panel found Cr Fleeton had not committed any breach, with the full decision and reasoning to be released in coming weeks.

“Common sense prevailed in the end,” says Cr Fleeton.

“I appreciate that process had to be followed once it was started. It’s just disappointing I wasn’t ever able to find out who actually complained about an elected councillor voicing an opinion on the most pressing challenges being faced, namely the state of our local finances.

“The last thing we need is a group of people just agreeing with each other and not making tough decisions in the fear of some type of prosecution.”

by DAVID BELL

FOLLOWING a community backlash, Bayswater council bureaucrats have claimed their recommendation to sell the Maylands Autumn Centre was a misunderstanding.

When city staff prepared a report for councillors about the city’s three seniors centres in Bayswater, Maylands and Morley, they stated their “preferred option” for Maylands’ was the “disposal of the building and land”.

That was changed to “consider retention or disposal of the land” after Cr Catherine Ehrhardt posted on Facebook that officers were proposing closure, provoking irate phone calls and emails to council ahead of the December 6 committee meeting.

“After we received letters from the community and I made a post about it letting the community know, we’re suddenly told that ‘oops, the table should read ‘consider the sale or retention of the land’,” rather than just disposal,” she says.

Bayswater mayor Dan Bull says it was an innocent typo and there was a “building audit underway that relates to all assets”.

Non-profit

But in September, the four clubs using the Autumn Centre received a council letter stating they could book there until January 31, “and such time that a decision is made as to the future of this venue.”

Clubs using the senior’s centres in Morley and Bayswater did not receive that letter.

World Shotokan Karate-do Federation was one of the groups told they couldn’t use the Autumn centre after January, but this week they got a call extending their stay to June.

“We’ve been there 10 years, so we don’t want them to [sell it], but it’s a decision for the council,” karate instructor Howard Mutton says.

“If they do sell or demolish, we have to consider something else.

“The RISE is one thing, but we are non-profit and we are worried about the expenses.”

Cr Elli Petersen-Pik noted that neither of the other seniors centres in the report, in Bayswater and Morley, had any mention of “disposal” as their preferred option.

He says the city had been purposely winding down use of the Maylands centre with a mind to getting rid of it.

“The recommendation to dispose, or consider disposal, is not mentioned for the Bayswater senior centre, or the Morley senior centre,” he says.

“Why’s that? Because [the Maylands centre] is empty.

“Because the city already cleared out the building, because the original option was to dispose of it, not to ‘consider’ disposal.” The fate of the Maylands centre will be decided when all council assets are reviewed in a city-wide audit starting next year.

by DAVID BELL  and MOLLY SCHMIDT

ARTIST Ill Withers was in Maylands this week, working on his new travel-themed street art for the town centre.

A joint commission between Bayswater council and Perth Airport, Withers also created the Yellow Brick Road on the retail strip.

The next two footpath artworks are a world map testing geographic knowledge, and a giant Monopoly artwork with Maylands businesses and landmarks as the squares on the board.

The two artworks will be finished in the next few weeks.

THE Christmas-themed display in Perth MP John Carey’s office window has drawn a lot of festive smiles from people passing by, but there’s a poignant backstory to the miniature Xmas buildings.

“Mum collected them for about 10 years,” says the Perth Labor MP.

In 2006 Carey’s mum, Delys, was diagnosed with a brain tumour.

Towards the end of her life, the family set up all the models in the living room for her to enjoy.

After she died, Mr Carey helped found the Brain Tumour Association in 2007, but he also kept her memory alive through adding to the collection.

“I promised her I would keep the collection going,” he says.

“It’s a tribute to my mum, but also about sharing the love of Christmas with the community.

“Christmas has never been the same without my mum—but this is a nice tribute to her.”

If you fancy checking out the display, head to Mr Carey’s electoral office, at the corner of Fitzgerald and Wasley Streets.

by DAVID BELL